Transfer Case Noise
Dec 9, 2011, 12:43 PM
#31
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I've got a 2010 evo X, noise starts around 25 mph gets louder to an extent then is just present doesn't get louder necessarily with speed more as a relation to RPM's. I just bought the car at 11,000 miles on it, thought id get one before it saw to much abuse...:/ when i picked it up it had some noise, i assumed it was normal trany / diff / road noise that all evo's have... Two months later add some grinding to it and the noise has gotten louder... took it in with 13,000 miles on it last week. the dude at the dealership looks at me asks me what i think it is i tell him i think its the t-case, and he just treats me like some asshat who googled the car and came up with the most common issue or something, anyway, one rental experience later i appreciate the evo even more. i got a call saying the dealership thinks its the driveshaft and will be ordering one and put it on next week, if that doesn't work they'll replace the tranny...so far i think they're just avoiding putting a new t-case on because its evidently already had a new one put on (they checked the service records). I'm 99.9% sure its the transfer case (grinding noise right on top of me on decel gives it away) and they're just not wanting to listen to the customer or have to follow certain steps before they're allowed to replace it again. They said when they unbolted the drive shaft the noise stopped, well no duh, no load on it, morons...anyway i'll let ya'll know how it goes.
Good Luck! The only thing I have to question about that is the transfer case is always in motion if the car is moving.. why wouldnt it make the noise in acceleration?
Dec 9, 2011, 03:38 PM
#32
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Sorry miss spoke there. I mean it's always there from 25 mph and up. Decel and accel. Just isn't a matter of speed more because of rpm. Probably based around gearing in the transfer case and tranns.
Dec 10, 2011, 07:40 AM
#33
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So no one has any solution to this whining issue. I have the same problem with whining coming from under the hood (the transfercase or transmission area). The transmission and gears are filled with stock fluid. I'm thinking it's my light flywheel and my ACT clutch that caused the whining problem mainly during deceleration. The noise has been like this for almost 20k miles now since the clutch was installed. Tech said it's normal but noise is very irritating. Someone in here said that they changed the clutch back to stock or something like that and the noise disappeared. Other said it's the fluid and rebuild transfer case. I'm not sure what route I'm going what but I need to pinpoint the problem first. Anyone?
Dec 11, 2011, 09:48 AM
#35
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Well i had the whine start a couple months ago. It would whine in just about every gear even on decel in nuetral. A little louder when i got on it. Went to the strip did a quick burnout, staged, went to launch and bang.. Got the car home, pulled out my t-case and found some broken gears in the front diff. I had a feeling it was the t-case because i saw acd fluid leaking out cause i broke a mount of t-case cover neer o-ring.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o51O4...er_profilepage
Dec 11, 2011, 10:09 AM
#36
There really isn't a nice easy fix. It's the bearings in the tcase that go. After a while pieces from the bearings can end up screwing up your pinion. Also a chipped tooth on your tranny pinion will make a continuous wine. But that's less likely than the tcase. I was told, they recommend every 1,500 miles or so we are supposed to pull our front passenger wheel, drop the tcase and check fluids. No I don't do this. I doubt most people do. But that's also why so many people have tcase problems. Because they dont keep up with the ridiculous maintenence these cars call for.
Dec 19, 2011, 05:50 AM
#37
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So the dealership here in lex got back to me and they will be replacing the transfer case after having an engineer come and make sure that was the problem. I can't tell you exactly how to determine the noise but it is pretty distinct. I think the youtube vids were pretty helpful especially in some of the evo's were you can tell they're super far gone.
Dec 19, 2011, 11:18 AM
#40
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There really isn't a nice easy fix. It's the bearings in the tcase that go. After a while pieces from the bearings can end up screwing up your pinion. Also a chipped tooth on your tranny pinion will make a continuous wine. But that's less likely than the tcase. I was told, they recommend every 1,500 miles or so we are supposed to pull our front passenger wheel, drop the tcase and check fluids. No I don't do this. I doubt most people do. But that's also why so many people have tcase problems. Because they dont keep up with the ridiculous maintenence these cars call for.
Dec 19, 2011, 12:32 PM
#41
I just recently blew up the Tcase. The sound for the tcase will modulate with any number of factors. Heat is one of them, and therefore the amount of fluid in the case is another. (It soaks up the heat and sound among other things).
One way to know for sure is to change or top off the Tcase fluid. Its easy and fast. I say this with conviction, because I had those sounds when I first got my evo, via salvage title. Turns out there was NO fluid in the Tcase. Filled it up, sound went away, and it was good for another 30k miles, which included lots of track abuse. I did regularly change the fluid in that Tcase after every 3 or so track days.
Recently I haven't run the evo much, and I had death whine at a track event. checked for fluid leaks, and nothing, assumed it was full. (Doh!! incomplete logic). I should have topped it off at the track, but I got stupid for some reason. The Tcase blew out on the freeway drive home. No fluid or not enough. It had been leaking out of the overflow reservoir lid for years. Slowly, but since I hadn't changed it in a while I didn't mask the issue.
The Tcase builds huge amounts of heat. If low on fluid the bearings will cook, and blow out, even though you are just tooling along the freeway.
So, if you have the sound, or think you have the sound top off the Tcase, or change fluids. See if you can make the sound go away, or at least change, because then you have your answer.
One way to know for sure is to change or top off the Tcase fluid. Its easy and fast. I say this with conviction, because I had those sounds when I first got my evo, via salvage title. Turns out there was NO fluid in the Tcase. Filled it up, sound went away, and it was good for another 30k miles, which included lots of track abuse. I did regularly change the fluid in that Tcase after every 3 or so track days.
Recently I haven't run the evo much, and I had death whine at a track event. checked for fluid leaks, and nothing, assumed it was full. (Doh!! incomplete logic). I should have topped it off at the track, but I got stupid for some reason. The Tcase blew out on the freeway drive home. No fluid or not enough. It had been leaking out of the overflow reservoir lid for years. Slowly, but since I hadn't changed it in a while I didn't mask the issue.
The Tcase builds huge amounts of heat. If low on fluid the bearings will cook, and blow out, even though you are just tooling along the freeway.
So, if you have the sound, or think you have the sound top off the Tcase, or change fluids. See if you can make the sound go away, or at least change, because then you have your answer.
Dec 19, 2011, 04:02 PM
#42
I don't know how you managed to blow yours. I was very hard on my tcase with it wining for 30k miles, never once checked fluids and it never locked up on me. At the end of my first Tcase's life I took a couple long road trips driving hundreds of miles without really stopping and didn't have that happen. Maybe I got lucky I don't know
Dec 19, 2011, 04:37 PM
#43
Yours was probably not slowly leaking its fluids out of the top reservoir. That is supposed to have a lid with a valve and 4 bolts. MIne was not attached. Not something you would ever see or notice. When I took the Tcase out that lid fell out. The trouble with salvage title cars. You don't know what monkey bolted those bits of various cars into one car.
I think the track day did in the final loss of fluids. So the drive home super heated the tcase and the bearings gave out, which then ate the ring and pinion.
Lesson here is to get an easy system down to top off and check the fluids. Hand pump with oil to every track event. And, if you don't see any fluid leaking out, it could mean that all the fluid has already left a few hundred miles ago.
Yeah, it wasn't brilliant, so I hope people who read this will just at least not make my same mistake someday.
I think the track day did in the final loss of fluids. So the drive home super heated the tcase and the bearings gave out, which then ate the ring and pinion.
Lesson here is to get an easy system down to top off and check the fluids. Hand pump with oil to every track event. And, if you don't see any fluid leaking out, it could mean that all the fluid has already left a few hundred miles ago.
Yeah, it wasn't brilliant, so I hope people who read this will just at least not make my same mistake someday.
Dec 19, 2011, 05:59 PM
#44
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Not all parts are the same Ive heard of people going countless miles with modded engines and not blowing them and others blowing them right away. I myself had been driving my bad Tcase hard as hell for well over 30k and the damm thing was still kicking when I pulled it out.